Two weeks ago we announced that Dinara Safina was to overtake Serena Williams at the top of the rankings, and that day has come today. It’s interesting to point out that Safina and her older brother Marat Safin are the only brother-sister duo to have been No.1 in professional tennis.

Ana Ivanovic made some family photos public and also updated her online diary, talking about the Easter traditions in Serbia. I can make a note that Serbs are Orthodox Christians and their church calendar is the Julian calendar and not the Gregorian calendar, so Easter in Serbia was celebrated yesterday, April 19.

In addition, Ana Ivanovic and Venus Williams have been nominated for 2009 Laureus World Sports Awards.

Maria Sharapova is supposedly about to return before the French Open. Russia's Fed Cup captain Shamil Tarpishchev said: "I spoke with her father the day before yesterday and he told me that she is training seriously for Roland Garros. She is getting ready to play a couple of tournaments before the French Open. Maria is now back to full training. We can only hope that she does well." I have to see it to believe it, though.

Of course, Sharapova’s continuing her modeling career. The latest are her photos for Nike, and Nike must have known we missed Masha, so they gave us plenty of her in one place.

Vera Zvonareva badly hurt her ankle while playing against Virginie Razzano at the Family Circle Cup. She has two torn ligaments, one full tear and one partial.

Zheng Jie signed with ANTA, the Chinese brand already promoted by Jelena Jankovic. The Asia’s No. 1 WTA player also visited her home province of Sichuan, the first time after the devastating earthquake hit it last year in May. Don’t forget that Zheng donated her Wimbledon prize money to help the victims of the disaster.

I hope this summary is giving you a nice overview of the events I missed to report because of my Prague adventures.

Glad to be back blogging,

Marija

8 thoughts on “Ivanovic reveals family pics, Sharapova still just a model, Zvonareva injured, ANTA signs Zheng, and more”

I didn't realise that so much had happened over these few days. We'd be lost without you Marija :). I cannot hope enough that Sharapova will FINALLY return sometime before Roland Garros…. although we heard the same thing before the Australian Open. What do you think of Lisicki? She looks like she could be a great player.

News about Sharapova's return should always be taken with a grain of salt, we've seen it postponed already.

I haven't followed Sabine's run at Charleston, but I read her favorite shot, serve, was exceptional during the week. She's a very good player, and the fact she won such a big tournament as her first says her confidence is doing fine. I believe we'll hear more and more about her and she'll move up in the rankings.

I know that injuries are part of the game but I feel sorry for Vera Z. She was playing the best tennis of her career when this injury happened. It will take her about a year maybe more to recover at 100% and probably another year to get to high level that she was playing as of late.

I'm still in a wait and see mode about Sharapova. If she returns before RG 09 and plays I have to watch 1)How strong is her shoulder. 2)How is her physical conditioning to withstand the every day wear and tear. 3) Since clay is not her favorite surface, will she use the clay tournaments as part of her comeback to top form?
I said this before, if she re-injures her shoulder that indicates that her best tennis days are over.